Centrifuges of the type to which the present invention relates are described in the literature, see, for example, German Disclosure Documents DE-OS No. 23 26 492 and German Pat. No. 23 11 234 (corresponds to U.S. Ser. No. 240,968, filed 4 Apr. 4, 1972, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,390, Chulay). These two disclosure documents describe different solutions for the suspension of sample holder cups. The holder cups are retained on the rotor by a spring element which is secured to the rotor in bores positioned in a plane transverse to the axis of rotation of the rotor. These bores reduce the effective material diameter of the rotor and thus decrease its strength.